The Long Road Home

The LONG and WINDING ROAD may take us miles and miles away from home.....but HOME is where the Heart is.

I realized that once more when I saw a TeleDrama shown on the tube last night....making me shed tears as I locked my eyes on the tube.
Made me aware, too, that I haven't seen any tearjerker for quite sometime now.


You see, the teledrama was based on a real-life story of a Japanese man
who was taken prisoner by the Russians during the last part of World War2.
He was accused of being a spy.


While he was being hauled into a truck, he shouted to his wife that he is going to come back for them. He had been married only three years and his daughter was just a couple of month old.


He was taken to Siberia, along with other Japanese POWs where they were made to work under the chilly Siberian air, even long after the war was over. Sickness and the freezing weather made them die one by one. He saw how his fellow prisoners die, or shot because they can no longer move or work. He, too became sick, but his will was stronger than his body.


The man longed to go back to his home country. He once promised his bride that he would always be at her side. He wanted to see his daughter, too.


The freezing Siberian winter was too much to bear.
He longed to savor the warmth inside the HQ of the Russian soldiers. One time, he came inside to bring wood for the hearth. He lingered a little longer and saw one Officer throw a hair-cutting device because it has lost its sharpness.
He immediately volunteered to sharpen it despite his lack of knowledge on those things. He wanted to win the approval of the Officers so he can just stay, even for a while, inside the wamth of the room. He wanted to stay a live. He wanted to see his family again. His hope never waned.


He spent the night looking for ways to sharpen the device. He couldn't find any: no stone, no nothing! But he found ways to make it sharp despite his wounded hands. Finally, his persistence got the better of him. He was able to do it. He won the nod of the officials and was made one of the barbers inside the barracks.


AFTER the war, he was released from prison. Much as he wanted to go back home to Japan, he was not allowed. The Russian soldiers who monitored him said: "A spy will never be allowed to leave Russia."


ALL those years, the wife, Hisako waited and waited, hoping against hope that her husband was still alive. She went to the beach where he first proposed and looked beyond the waves, to the direction of Russia, and longed for him. She prayed that one day he, too, will come back home to them.


She worked and raised her daughter alone. Her hope never waned. She believed that her husband was still alive. After all, there was no dead body found, so why believe the rumors that her husband had died?


Sometime in 1956, Japanese prisoners of war from Russia were released. But this man was not among them. The reason given was the same: that he was a spy. They suggested that he rather take up Russian citizenship to make his stay legal. He did because there was no other alternative....but to obey what the Russians dictated.


Meanwhile, families waited on the Port where the ship carrying the P-O-W-s docked
and welcomed them with open arms. Hisako and daughter searched desperately and asked each returnee but no one can tell her his whereabouts.

Later, at home, she cried her heart out, asking why.....It was the first time the daughter saw her mother cry, and her heart broke, too.


It was a lonely existence living and working alone in a local barber shop in rural Russia. One time, while inside the coffee shop, the Japanese man took a piece of paper and folded a paper crane. A Russian woman came near his table and commented on the paper crane. That started their long friendship which later flourished into romance. It was Claudia who said that "when the time comes and you will have to go back to your family, I will let you go."


They lived for 3- or so years. They have fallen in love with each other so much that they have decided to die together. He even fashioned 2 coffins for both of them, bearing their pictures atop.....ready when the time comes.


Even then, there were times when Claudia would see him looking beyond the window, eyes longing for something....


This went on until the Policy of Perestroika was introduced in Russia. Everyone became free. Travels were no longer restricted.


It was then that Claudia encouraged the Japanese man to go back and see his family.
Seeing him sad and longing for home was too much for her. She arranged everything:travel papers, tickets and even a going-away-gift and a letter
which Claudia said must be read when he is inside the local train. It was a letter that made clear Claudia's stand: If ever he is free, he can come back and live with her, but if the family still exist, then he must be with his family. Easier said than done, huh?


There were tears, of course in bidding one goodbye. After all, no one with a heart could just throw away 30 years living together in perfect harmony, could they?


At the Train platform, Hisako was accompanied by their daughter.

When the final moment came, and they saw each other after more than 50 years of separation, they embraced for a long time. They kissed and cried, which is unusual for the Japanese. They just don't do that in public.


[The footage of the actual meeting was recorded in camera and scooped in all leading newspapers in Japan. It was a scene that is much more dramatic than in any Koreanovela I saw.....


It was beautiful love story: one that meant sacrifice for Claudia and likewise, for Hisako. Claudia knew that from the start she will never have all of him. Hisako, on the other hand, believed in her husband's words that he will come back....that he will never leave her alone. She waited for more than 50 long years!


Ahhh....LOVE!

Once found, it will go on forever....